


Ace and Nancy blurbs

by kiwi_stan



Category: Nancy Drew (TV 2019)
Genre: Ace always looks out for Nancy, F/M, Fluff, Platonic Soulmates, maybe the rest of the Drew Crew will pop up later?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:22:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25122361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiwi_stan/pseuds/kiwi_stan
Summary: Some sweet pre-relationship moments between Ace and Nancy. I am not good at titles.
Relationships: Ace/Nancy Drew
Comments: 3
Kudos: 32





	1. One

A year ago, Nancy Drew hadn’t even believed in ghosts. Now, after being haunted by her mother and Tiffany Hudson, she was all in. And, she was learning, Horseshoe Bay had even more skeletons in its closet than she had known. Residents liked to keep the town’s other mysteries under wraps, not wanting to ruin the small town’s peaceful, nobody-locks-their-doors image. But more hauntings and hours at the historical society, tearing through old documents under Hannah Gruen’s watchful eye, had revealed more missing people and unsolved murders. And Nancy, being Nancy, was determined to solve all of them. 

Her current pet case was a missing girl from the 1930s, but it had proved difficult to solve so far. Depression-era record-keeping and reporting hadn’t been the best, and it was so long ago that there wasn’t anyone living who remembered that time. She’d spent the day tearing apart both the historical society and the library, searching for anything that might have information. Ace had tagged along. Despite his initial reluctance to enter the library (he’d made Nancy go in first and only followed once she texted him that Dominique wasn’t working), he’d made an excellent research assistant. With a librarian as a mother, he’d long ago learned how to use the microfiche machine and knew the Dewey decimal system like the back of his hand. With his help, they’d left with a stack of books and printouts of old newspaper articles. 

That had been several hours ago. Now it was approaching midnight and Nancy was realizing that old documents and long history books were not the most interesting reading material. Despite all the hours she had been putting in, she hadn’t found anything noteworthy. Her one consolation was that Ace had stuck around and was now sprawled beside her on the living room floor of the tiny apartment she’d moved into after deciding she needed to spend some time living on her own. Books, papers, highlighters, sticky notes, and empty coffee mugs surrounded them. She’d had the thought earlier that it was like what cramming for a college exam with your best friend was like, but she hadn’t allowed herself to dwell on that for too long. 

Ace pushed aside a stack of papers and glanced down at his phone. “Maybe we should call it a night.” He suggested. 

Nancy shook her head, even as she stifled a yawn. “I feel like we’re really close to finding something.” She insisted, trying to ignore the exhaustion weighing on her entire body. She couldn’t really explain it since they hadn’t come across anything promising yet. It was more of a gut feeling telling her that soon the mystery would begin to unravel itself. And there was no way she was going to sleep until she’d at least started to solve something. 

With just about anyone else, she would have to put up more of a fight, explain why she wanted to keep working, why she felt like they were close. Ace, loyal as ever, just nodded. “I’ll go make some more coffee.” He said, getting to his feet and heading for Nancy’s kitchen. 

He was only gone for about fifteen minutes, but that was enough time for Nancy to fall asleep with her head in a local history book. He couldn’t say that he was surprised. She’d been working incredibly hard lately to uncover more of Horseshoe Bay’s hidden history. He’d noticed the dark circles that seemed ever-present under her eyes lately and speculated that she was doing so at the expense of her sleep schedule. Spending hours in the library and digging through dense historical texts was enough to put anyone to sleep, much less someone who needed to catch up on their rest anyway. He’d noticed Nancy growing quieter over the past few hours as she began to grow tired. But he knew how stubborn she could be, especially once she had a goal set for herself, so Ace had only mentioned calling it a night once and had instead provided caffeine and support. 

Abandoning the fresh coffee cups on a side table, Ace turned his attention to Nancy. He gently scooped her up, thinking of how unforgiving sleeping on the hardwood floor would be. He moved as carefully as possible, trying not to wake her. It turned on that he hadn’t needed to worry. Nancy was out cold and didn’t stir at all as he set her on the couch. Spotting a fuzzy blanket hanging over the back of the couch, he draped it over her, also making sure that a throw pillow was nestled behind her head. He took another moment to make sure that she was comfortable, also realizing how peaceful she looked asleep. Saying that Nancy had been through a lot in the past year was an understatement. Coupled with the whole girl-detective thing that meant that her mind was always moving a mile a minute, it was rare to see her not thinking deeply about something. This was probably one of the few times he’d seen her look completely calm. 

Ace settled back down among their research nest on the floor and picked up the book Nancy had fallen asleep on. He glanced over at Nancy again, finding her still sound asleep. Satisfied that she was safe and resting comfortably, he started reading, vowing to let Nancy sleep for as long as she needed to and hoping to have a clue for her when she woke up.


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ace takes Nancy to a special spot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We talked about this a lot on the Nancy Drew fan forum, so it will probably sound familiar if you post there. Either way I hope you like it :)

Nancy watched as Ace scrubbed at a stubborn spot on a dish. She wasn’t sure why she was so nervous. She had confronted murderers before with complete confidence. Why did approaching one of her best friends suddenly seem so scary?   
Ace caught her staring. “Take a picture. It’ll last longer.” 

Nancy smiled. She was grateful that he’d been the one to speak first. That made her next words easier. “Would you want to do somewhere with me after we get off tonight?” She toyed with a dishtowel nervously as she spoke 

“Somewhere haunted?” Ace asked, raising an eyebrow in question. 

It was a valid question. “Actually no. Not this time.” 

“I’m a little disappointed there won’t be any ghosts. But alright.” 

*

The bell above the door clanged when Nancy pushed it open. She glanced around. She hadn’t been inside the ice cream parlor since her marathon sleuthing session trying to track down any information about Lucy Sable. That had been a few weeks ago. Nothing had changed since then. The place hadn’t changed at all since Nancy had been a kid. She wasn’t sure why she had been expecting it to look different. 

Being there felt different though. She’d been expecting to feel some kind of connection to Lucy. Instead, Nancy felt an unexpected wave of sadness crash over her. Would Lucy have brought her here? What else would they have done together? Would Nancy have grown up to be more like Lucy? What was Lucy like anyway? There were so many things she didn’t know and so many things she would never get answers to. 

Ace stepped in behind her. “You okay?” He asked, reading Nancy’s expression perfectly. 

“My mom used to come here all the time.” She would have shrugged off the question from anyone else, but something about Ace made her want to be honest with him. It was why he was the one person she’d asked to come along. She felt the most comfortable with him and he understood her the best. 

“Oh.” Ace said. Nancy knew that he’d picked up on what she meant. “Do you want to leave?” 

Nancy smiled a little bit in spite of herself. “I was the one who wanted to come.” She’d invited him and she’d been the one to drag him out of the Claw and down the street to the ice cream parlor as soon as they had closed for the day. “It’s just weirder than I thought it would be.” Nancy tried to push all the sad, Lucy-related thoughts away. 

“What’s your favorite flavor?” Ace asked, leading her towards the counter. Nancy realized that he was trying to distract her, and for that she was grateful. 

“Mint chocolate chip. Yours?” 

“Vanilla,” Nancy made a face. She hadn’t pictured Ace as a boring vanilla person. “Let me finish. With every possible topping.” 

“Is tastes good like that?” Nancy eyed the various sauces, nuts, and fruits behind the counter. 

Ace nodded. “Of course.” He said as if he were stating a basic fact. “My mom calls it a kitchen sink.” 

“You must be a nightmare at those pay by weight frozen yogurt places.” Horseshoe Bay didn’t have one, the town was too small to really be “with it” when it came to food trends. But there was one in the mall a short drive away. Nancy’s friends had liked to hang out there back in high school. 

They ordered. Nancy watched the cashier’s eyes widen as Ace rattled off his list of toppings and she looked relieved when Nancy ordered a simple mint chocolate chip cone. 

They had their pick of seats. It was chilly out, not really ice cream weather. Though Nancy had always believed any weather to be ice cream weather, and Ace clearly thought the same. Nancy wondered if Lucy had thought the same way. 

“Want to try?” Ace held out his spoon. Nancy studied it. She could see vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, peanuts, Oreos, rainbow sprinkles, whipped cream, and a cherry, but she had no idea what else was in there. She shook her head. Ace shrugged. “You don’t know what you’re missing.” 

“I’m fine. Do you even taste the ice cream?” 

Ace nodded. “It’s the perfect base for everything else.” Nancy shook her head again, still doubtful. “Did I ever tell you about the time I got banned from this place?” 

“Banned?” 

“It was years ago. I’m allowed back here now. One summer when I was little my babysitter cancelled last minute so my mom took me to work with her. To an eight-year-old boy the library is, like the most boring place on earth, so I got restless pretty fast.” 

“You hadn’t started hacking then?” Nancy teased. 

“That was in high school.” Nancy filed that bit of information away for later as Ace continued the story. “So that day, I was really bored and kept bugging my mom while she was trying to get stuff done. She got annoyed and gave me some money and told me to walk down and get myself an ice cream. So I was feeling super grown up going somewhere by myself. Then when I got here I saw a couple older kids who I went to school with and they invited me to sit with them, which just made me feel like the coolest eight-year-old ever. Eventually one of them dared me to throw my ice cream at the ceiling and told me it would stick. It didn’t, but it did make a huge mess. The other kids I was with ran outside really fast and left me alone to get yelled at by the employee who told me not to come back.” 

“And now you are. You’re such a rebel.” 

Ace shook his head. “It was a high school girl who quit when she went off to college. Like most people do.” It was how things worked in Horseshoe Bay. Residents learned that young. 

“I had my first date here.” Nancy said, not wanting to be outdone with old stories. She was grateful Ace had changed the conversation. She was feeling better, happy talking with Ace and actually a little closer to Lucy. “When I was fifteen.” 

“With who?” 

“His name was Trevor. I’m not sure if you remember him.” Ace had been two grades above her at Keene high, and she remembered how upperclassmen hadn’t wanted to be seen with underclassmen. She barely remembered Ace from high school. He hadn’t been a big joiner, one of those kids that everyone knew anyway.

“Fisher? Played golf?” 

“That’s him.” 

“That’s all I remember.” 

Nancy laughed. “That’s pretty much all there was to him. He wasn’t the most interesting person ever.” 

“What happened to him?” 

“Went to school out of state and didn’t want to do long distance.” Ace was already giving her that sad, pitying look she’d become very used to lately. “It was for the best, honestly. When I think about….everything that’s happened lately I can’t imagine him dealing with it.” She said quickly. Trevor had fit well with high school Nancy, who had been put together hadn’t believed in ghosts or anything supernatural. She couldn’t imagine what he would think of the new Nancy who tangled with ghosts and demons. 

“You don’t think he’d help you summon a sea spirit?” 

“Never. He’d never help me bait a serial killer either.” 

“Are you sure you’re okay being here?” Ace asked as they finished their ice cream. 

“I’m fine. Really. It was a little weird at first. But it feels kind of good now.” 

“You feel closer to her?” 

Nancy nodded. On impulse, she reached out and grabbed Ace’s hand, which was resting on the table between them. “Thank you for coming with me.” 

Ace looked a little shy, an expression Nancy wasn’t used to seeing on him. “Maybe we could do it again sometime.” 

“I would like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> I saw this list on tumblr and immediately thought of Ace and Nancy (https://berrybird.tumblr.com/post/136069388535/pre-relationship-things-for-your-ships-based-off)


End file.
